Death of a Friend
by LetsSingtheDoomSong
Summary: When a friend dies, who takes the blow the hardest? payback against Respect the Hobos for the hell she put me through on Nightmares


Dymond: Okay, this idea has been nagging at me for WEEKS now! I remember snooping through my seme's (Respect the Hobos) flash-drive & I noticed she had some stories where she was infected with the Geostigma. Obviously, she would have recovered with the whole Aerith's healing water & stuff, but I gots-to-thinkin': What would happen if by the time the water came around, Dani was already dead? What would happen to Reno since he loves her soooo much? Then I was listening to the radio when I got home from her house & the song 'Just to Get High' by Nickelback came on. I started getting pictures of Zack finding Reno in an alley just mess up to holy hell. It hasn't left me, so I need to get it out on here! I'm sorry, seme! I love you, hun, but this is also payback for that response you wrote to Nightmares, my father-daughter moment with Angeal & me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(I'm gonna hug my squiggles, because I'm getting sad thinking about this *hugs*)

The world seemed to stop when the mortician announced the time of death to the small dysfunctional family made up of Turks, AVALANCHE members & ex-SOLDIERs. More specifically, for a certain red-haired Turk. Danielle of the Turks was pronounced dead at 2:35 pm on April 4th. The killer: The disease Geostigma. She had said she was fine, that there was nothing to worry about, but now she was in the morgue. He could picture her now: pale skinned instead of her naturally tan, her eyes dulled over instead of the bright brown she had whenever she looked at him, her smile forever gone, her skin cold & her lips purple.

The others went ahead to see Dani one last time, before saying goodbye & walking away with tears flowing freely down their faces. The only person who didn't go was Reno & Rude. Reno couldn't bring himself to, in fear that he might shatter completely, but a firm squeeze on the shoulder by Rude made him stand up & follow his best friend & partner to the room of that reeked of death. He stopped outside the door, staring at it like it was the door to Hell itself. Although, it was missing the flames, skulls & blood like he normally pictured it. Rude opened the door & had to literally drag his friend inside, before Reno completely collapsed to his knees at the sight of Dani on the table.

Turks never cry. That was the rumor among the people of Midgar. That they feel nothing toward each other. But to the Turks & everyone daring enough to become close friends with them: That was a lie. And if the walls were gone, the world would have seen a Turk break down in deep sobs.

Things began slipping after that. Reno came in later & later to work, often times Rufus sending Zack or Dymond to fetch him & drag him to work. He looked more & more rugged as time went on. He was losing weight drastically & he was getting sick more & more often, like his immune system just completely collapsed. He was becoming more snappy toward people, treating everything with suffering & he nearly bit Elena's head off just because she was smiling. She was smiling because she was pregnant, but Reno didn't seem to care. It got a lot worse if people brought up Dani. He nearly electrocuted poor Cid to death for bringing up how Dani would have been a lot better help then Maggie when fixing his ships. Rufus had no choice but to take away any firearms & weapons on his person so he wouldn't hurt anyone else, especially with the pregnant Elena around. Eventually, Reno lost his job as a Turk & he found himself alone mentally.

Rufus asked Dymond & Zack to let Reno stay at their apartment since they were the only ones with a spare bedroom. Both agreed right away, seeing the damaged Turk. After that, Reno started disappearing for days on end, making Zack go on wild goose chases in search for the missing Turk. When he did come back, he had hell to pay from all his friends that, to him, were 'against him', that they 'didn't care' that Dani was dead, but that was not true.

One day, Dymond was cleaning Reno's room & discovered something under the bed. It was a small package with crushed white crystals on the inside. She nearly gasped & dropped the package when she recognized it from her childhood in the Slums: Meth. "Zack!" She called, rushing into the living room. He had just recently returned from Day II of the search for the missing Turk & was sitting on the couch exhausted. He looked up when his name was called & spotted the package in her hand. "Zack, we have a problem," She said scared of what the Turk was doing, "And I think I know where Reno is."

In the Slums of the old Sector 2, they came up empty. Thanks to Dymond's memory of the Slums, she knew where the drug dealers would be, asking if they had seen a red-headed man with blue eyes & red tattoos under his eyes. Only one person said they saw him, but the ex-SOLDIERs just missed him & they both knew Turks were masters of escape, especially Reno. If there was going to be anybody that was going to find Reno, it was the other Turks, but they were busy with other matters. "Reno..." Dymond muttered, staring at the now empty streets of the Slums. "Zack, we have to get out of here now," She ushered, pulling him back toward the way they came & back to their apartment before anything happened to them.

The search continued & the rumors started to gather. One of them was the someone had spotted Reno again & he had a knife to the throat of someone's wife, demanding money. He finally came to his 'home' though, but locked himself in the bedroom & used a barrier materia on it so that the couple he lived with couldn't get in. He'd come out during the night though, but the reason was unknown, until Dymond noticed some of her rings & necklaces were missing. She knew it was Reno, but said nothing & pretended not to know.

Again, Reno went missing & this time, Zack's search was successful when he turned into an alley in the middle of the night. Zack almost would have mistaken him for a homeless person by the way he looked. His arms were covered in scars & his fingertips seemed to be melted to the bone. His shoes were missing & so was his zip-up jacket. His eyes were bloodshot & he was missing chunks of his hair from his head, like he had just recently gotten into a fight & they were pulling on his hair. He was shaking violently & his breath was deep & unsteady as he continued to itch at his arms.

"What have you gone & done now, Reno?" Zack asked, making Reno look up at the man. His shoulders tensed as his face scrunched up into a face of child ready to sob over the death of their favorite pet or after they got hurt by something. Zack rushed over & knelt next to the red-head, placing a hand on his shoulder, but Reno almost seemed to growl at him, making him withdraw only for a second, before clasping a firm hand on his shoulder. Reno slinked away from the taller man, but he kept a firm grasp on him preventing any movement. "Tell me what's going on," Zack ordered gently, giving him that trademark smile that would make even the late Angeal cave.

Reno stared in shock at his friend, if he even had the right to call him that, before looking at the pavement. He tried to speak but his voice only came in a crackling, gurgling noise. Zack reached into his pocket & pulled out a water flask, holding it to Reno's lips. Reno greedily drank it down before stating, "I'm lost without her, man." Zack automatically knew he was talking about Dani. "I-I just don't know what to do! You all didn't care that she was dead! You went on with smiles on your faces as if she never existed!" Reno continued to shout his soul out at Zack, but Zack just listened quietly, taking everything the Turk threw at him. Even punches were thrown, but Zack took it.

After Reno was done shouting, his breathing was faster & even more unsteady then it was before. He was also sobbing at this point, clutching Zack's shirt & straddling him, ready to punch him again. He brought his hand down on the man's chest hard & struck again, but it was way weaker then the rest. After one last pathetic attempt to punch Zack, he fell forward & sobbed into his shoulder, catching the man off guard. "Zack, I fucked up big time, man," Reno choked out, slowly feeling weaker & heavier as sleep was catching up with him.

"Don't worry. We'll fix everything soon," Zack reassured as the Turk fell asleep. Zack slowly got the Turk off him & positioned Reno on his back, making his trek back to the apartment to report to his girlfriend & then to Rufus that Reno is back for good.

Dymond: This is not meant to be a slight ZackxReno, but more along the lines of Zack & Reno being brothers in our dysfunctional family.


End file.
